Reliving the past and your glory days aren’t harmful. They can remind you of your place in the world.
There was a time when lemon trees and orchards covered the Chula Vista landscape the way asphalt and concrete spread out over the city today.
“The 1920s was surely the Golden Age of lemon orchards in Chula Vista,” writes Steven Schoenherr in “Chula Vista Centennial A Century of People and Progress. “Local growers in watched the population boom in Florida replace citrus grove with housing developments ad believed this would drive up the price of lemons. Their own land would become more valuable as orchards rather than houses.”
As is true today, seemingly unrelated events in distant locales have affects on lives closer to home. A housing boom in Florida meant Chula Vista’s agricultural economy would benefit thanks to a shrinking supply chain.
Growers and landowners would benefit, as would Japanese workers—whose descendants would possibly be shipped off to internment camps decades later thanks to World War II racism—that picked the sour fruit that sweetened the local economy.
Years later, on the city’s 50th anniversary the Chamber of Commerce, doing what it does, helped squeeze every last bit of good public relations out of the turn of events by declaring Chula Vista “Lemon Capital of the World.”
I’m not sure how much the city deserved that title but it has served as a useful reminder of this city’s roots as an agricultural hub.
Alas, that crown has been placed on other brows over the years. Corona, California currently holds the title of largest lemon producer in the United States. Globally, Mexico leads the way in lemon (and lime) production followed by Argentine and the E.U. to round out the top three worldwide lemon leaders. The U.S. comes in at number 5.
Chula Vista’s own real estate boom contributed to the demise of it agricultural economy. Along came factories and industries and a need for more workers and housing. Orchards gave way to housing tracts.
But all these years later we still have the Lemon Festival, an occasion to celebrate a sweet and sour past. This year’s event is Aug. 17 in downtwon Chula Vista on Third Avenue.
